Xana's Shadow
by Last of the Dragonkin
Summary: This is an AU. Lyoko is a monarchy-governed country ruled by King Franz and Queen Anthea until their assassination at the hands of their son, Prince Xana, who takes the throne for himself and becomes a tyrannical ruler. The Lyokans loathe and fear him. However, there is a resistance group known as the "Lyoko Warriors" who fight to free Lyoko from Xana's rule. Pairings: AxJ, YxU
1. Prologue

**This story is under construction, please know that as of now, I am heavily editing this story for grammar, spelling, and content. New chapters are also being written.**

This is the prologue. It's here to just set up the story and explain any events that take place before the actual start of the plot.

* * *

At one time, Lyoko was a beautiful country, full of large waterfalls, tall mountains, green forests, and oasis-filled deserts. The palace of the king and queen sat on top of the tallest mountain and was very exquisite. At the foot of the other mountains were towns and villages inhabited by the citizens of the great country.

The king and queen of Lyoko were loved by everyone. King Franz always did what was best for the people of the country. All he wanted was for everyone to live in harmony. The same went for his wife, the queen of Lyoko, Queen Anthea.

There was also a prince who, unlike his parents, hated the Lyokans. Nobody knew why, not even himself. But he hated them, and that was all the motivation he needed to carry out his terrible plan.

But he had to wait until the time was right.

The prince, Xana, didn't actually hate **everyone**. There was one person he did care for; his younger sister, Princess Aelita. In fact, he cared for her so much that he made sure that no one outside of the palace knew of her existence. He wished to make sure that she would never be harmed. What better way than ensuring that nobody knew who she was?

That's why she was the only person in the palace who survived his plan.

His plan to take over the throne by killing his parents. And he succeeded. At the age of fourteen he assassinated both King Franz and Queen Anthea. He had the palace burned down whilst they were inside. And being the oldest of the two siblings, Xana took the throne for himself, ordering the execution of all of the servants and soldiers who had served the previous rulers.

He built up a new army, one that no one could rival. An army of monsters.

Other countries called his army the "Monsters of Lyoko". And monsters they were. That is to say, they weren't human. No. They were artificial soldiers created and individually named by Xana himself. The only member of the the military that was human was Xana's childhood friend, William. Once Xana had taken the throne, he made William the general of the military.

It is now two years later. King Xana is sixteen and has been the most tyrannical ruler in Lyokan history. The people of Lyoko live in fear of the man who killed their beloved king. And as for his younger sister, Aelita, he continued to ensure that no one ever knew who she was. To him, she was Aelita Hopper, the princess of Lyoko. To everyone else, she was Aelita Stones, a mysterious peasant girl who had come from a neighboring country. No one knew where she stayed when she wasn't in the villages or towns. No one knew the truth about her identity, either.

And that, is where this story begins...

* * *

I took down the other chapters for editing and additions. They won't be back up for awhile. If you have any questions, message me on page and I'll be glad to answer. Stay tuned and keep checking your emails if you follow the story. Summer break is almost here so I'll have lots of time to work on the story.


	2. The Eye of Xana

Lyoko.

Aelita Hopper remembered when it was still a beautiful country. She remembered when her father ruled and the country was peaceful. It was her own brother that changed it. Her own brother that put the country on lockdown. The ports were shut down and any kind of transportation that came near the country was destroyed.

All of Lyoko's cities were facing hardships. Even the capital, Carthage, was in despair. Carthage, once a beautiful city filled with technology that was far more advanced than the other cities. The roads had been a wonderful shade of blue and the houses were large and immaculate.

Now it was the exact opposite. The streets were black as night and the houses no longer existed. Carthage was now Xana's domain. Darkness had swept over the city. The people who lived there had been wiped out and replaced by the military. The monsters...

Carthage itself was the center of Lyoko. West of it was Forêt and east was Banquise. To the east of Banquise was Desért and surrounding these four cities was Montagne. It was the largest city in the country.

The citizens who lived in the other cities were forced to live in huts with little food or water and weren't allowed out of their homes during the night. It was the monsters. Those foul creatures engineered in Xana's labs made sure that nobody broke curfew. If someone did, they were killed on the spot.

Aelita Hopper was Xana's younger sister. A girl of average height whose hair was the brightest shade of pink. One wouldn't even know that she was related to the ruling tyrant. But against her will she was born as his blood relation and after the death of her parents, forced to stay in the palace at the center of Carthage.

* * *

"Your brother wishes to see you," the boy said to Aelita.

The tall, black-haired boy stood in the doorway of her room. He wouldn't look her in the eyes and instead just stood holding the door open, waiting for her to exit.

The boy, William, had been sent by her brother, Xana, to retrieve her from her room, most likely to remind her of how great he was. It sickened her.

Aelita walked down the long hallway that led to the throne room where her brother resided. He was sitting on his throne, as she had expected, and he looked far too happy for anything good to have happened.

Aelita walked up to him and stared, waiting for him to speak.

He looked into her green eyes and said calmly, "I thought I told you to bow to me before we start our conversations."

Aelita continued to look at him, making it quite clear that she would not be bowing any time soon. She couldn't believe her ears. Her own brother telling her to treat him like her owner. She despised what he had become.

"Alright," he continued, a bit of annoyance in his tone, "You're probably wondering why I sent for you," he paused to look down at the floor. "I wanted to know how you were doing."

Aelita's eyes narrowed. It was true that while their parents were still alive they cared for each other deeply. Her brother had always been protective of her, never letting her set foot outside of the palace. It seemed that, while he was a bit more lenient now that he ruled Lyoko, he was still protective. There was one positive thing that came out of this newfound freedom. She was now allowed to leave the palace as long as William was with her. Not that there was anything nice to see outside.

"You refuse to speak to me, don't you?" he sighed. "Alright, you may return to your room," he finished, waving his hand for her to leave.

* * *

It was raining. Something Aelita hadn't seen in quite a long time. Not ever since that day two years ago. The day Xana had taken control of Lyoko. There had been a fire. Aelita had been running through a long passageway; everything ablaze around her. She had known that the fire was Xana's doing. He had been talking about doing something that would change their lives forever. Aelita figured that he must have been talking about this.

"Aelita!" She had stopped running, skidding a bit on the marble floor, and looked to her right.

She saw her mother, Anthea, underneath a pile of burning wood. She had run to help but Anthea had yelled at her to stop.

"You have to get out of here, Aelita. Run away. Don't-" she had coughed (Aelita always remembered the coughing), "don't let him find you. RUN!" she had screamed.

And Aelita ran. She ran as fast as she could. She had known that she needed to get out of the palace. That she had to get away from the fire.

And as she ran...they showed up.

Two men.

They wore all black; they even had black masks covering their faces.

And they grabbed her.

After that Aelita didn't remember many details. She know that the men had taken her to Xana and William.

And she knew that her father was now dead...as well as her mother.

Rain had put out the fire. And as her brother carried her inside, she secretly thanked that rain. Because it meant that not everything had to burn.

Aelita always cried whenever it rained because it always reminded her of that dreadful evening. And she cried to herself as she watched the rain that fell today. They were tears of sadness as she thought back to that day two years ago. But they were also tears of happiness. The people in the cities would get this rain as well. And they would have water.

* * *

"Thank you, Miss," the store clerk said to Aelita as she payed for the fruit that was in her basket.

She smiled at the man and then left the small shop. William was standing outside, waiting for her.

He had on his usual attire, consisting of black jeans and a black jacket emblazoned with the symbol that Xana used to represent himself: two concentric circles, a line above them, and three lines below them, resembling an eye.

Some people referred to it as the "Eye of Xana". And "Xana's eye" watched over everyone. His symbol was engraved onto the streets and buildings as if to keep an eye on his country.

The monsters that guarded the palace, "Megatanks" he called them, were round and gray on their outer-shell while on the inside they had many red veins that connected the shell to Xana's eye that was in the center of the creature-like a heart. His other monsters had it as well, but in different locations on each of them.

"Are you ready to go back to the palace now?" William asked.

Aelita looked down in her basket to check if there was anything missing. When she saw that there wasn't, she told William that she still had a bit more shopping to do.

In reality, she didn't want to return to the palace. Every second away from that place was a second in which she could be happy.

Even though the country was the way it was, Aelita was able to get that tiny bit of freedom. And she loved it.

Montagne, being the closest city to Carthage, was where they were. Aelita loved to shop here because it reminded her of her childhood. When she would play with her cousin or with William. That, of course, was before William betrayed her. However she liked to imagine that he was the innocent, carefree boy she remembered.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" William yelled suddenly.

A boy had apparently been reading a letter and not looking where he was walking, almost running into Aelita. William stuck his arm out to keep him from knocking her over, but in the course of this action, caused the boy to fall face flat onto the road. The letter he had been holding fell out of his hands and landed at her feet. When Aelita bent down to pick it up, the boy quickly grabbed it and stuffed it in his pocket.

She didn't recognize this boy. It certainly wasn't someone who shopped in the Montagne marketplace regularly. Aelita had grown up visiting Montagne and had never seen him before. Of course, Montagne was huge so it was very possible that this boy had simply come from a different area. Whatever the case may be, he was here now and he was acting fairly suspicious.

"Sorry, didn't see you there," he muttered.

"Well that's obvious," William sneered, "Your eyesight must not be that great."

Aelita looked at the boy and noticed that he was indeed wearing glasses.

"Are you alright?" she asked, her voice carrying a tone of genuine worry.

"It doesn't matter, Aelita. Let's go," William grunted.

"Go on ahead, I'll meet you at the border," Aelita waved at him.

"I hardly think your brother will be pleased if-"

"Go! I'll be there in a minute. What he doesn't know won't hurt him," she said more urgently.

William rolled his eyes but complied with Aelita's request.

"What's your name?" she asked the boy.

"Uh, Jeremie," he stated plainly, "Jeremie Belpois."

"I see. I'm Aelita Stones," she explained. "Um, what was that paper?"

Jeremie quickly crumpled the paper in his fist. "It's just a letter... from a friend. Why?"

"Oh, uh, no reason, just wondering. By the way, well, you seem pretty nice. Do you want to meet up somewhere later?" Aelita couldn't believe what she was saying. There was no way that she'd be able to see him secretly. She couldn't go anywhere without William.

What was the saying? Love makes people crazy? Well if that was the case then Aelita's sudden interest in this boy was certainly blinding her judgement.

Jeremie nodded and said, "There's an old house on the outskirts of town. It's abandoned so no one will bother us."

Aelita smiled. "Alright. Meet me there tonight-"

"Aelita!" she turned to see William walking towards them.

"I'll see ya, then," she whispered.

* * *

Sitting on her bed, Aelita contemplated the one thing keeping her from meeting that boy. She had to get to Montagne from the palace, which on average took an hour on foot. That would leave her with two hours travel time. Add that to however long she'd be there and she'd be gone for a fairly noticeable amount of time.

That left her with one plan.

"I'm going to bed early," Aelita muttered.

"What?" William asked, looking up from his supper.

Aelita cleared her throat and continued, "I'm super tired so I'm going to bed earlier than usual."

"Do...you want me to inform your brother?" William asked.

"Do what you want, I don't care," she snapped.

As she got up to leave, she added "Just know that I'm certainly not going to tell him.

Aelita smirked as she walked back to her room. She grabbed a bottle of water and stuffed it into a small bag. Then, after placing pillows underneath her blanket (so that no one would think she was gone), she turned off the light. Finally, she opened the window and looked down.

"I probably should have gotten a ladder," she whispered.

The window was at least twenty feet above the ground. Aelita got down on her knees and rested her head against the wall. For five minutes she simply stayed in that position, mulling over her situation. She was just about to go to bed when she heard a familiar noise.

When she looked out the window she saw the creature that was making it. She recognized at once that it was a Flying Manta. Most of them were blue and looked almost exactly like regular Mantas aside from Xana's Eye being on their backs. This one, however, was black. The only one of its kind. It belonged to William.

"What are you doing here?" Aelita whispered.

The Manta held out a wing to her and pointed its head away from the palace.

Aelita's eyes widened as she realized what it wanted.

"You want to give me a ride?" Aelita smiled. She didn't know why the creature was helping her but she was going to take this opportunity and run with it.

She grabbed her bag and climbed onto the Manta. "Just take me to the border, I can walk from there."

* * *

"Hey," Aelita panted as she walked to the gate of the old house. It had been a mile's walk from the edge of Carthage to the house and she had sprinted the entire way.

"I know we didn't specify a precise time but I figured you would be a bit earlier," Jeremie said sternly before giving Aelita the kindest smile she'd ever seen.

"Sorry; it took me awhile to get out. How long have you been waiting?"

"Just two hours," he laughed, "it doesn't matter, I had things to keep me busy."

Aelita laughed awkwardly. She sat down next to Jeremie and looked around. She didn't know why but the house looked oddly familiar, like something out of a long forgotten dream.

"What is this place?" she asked.

Jeremie looked at Aelita and pointed up. On the gate, where Jeremie was pointing, was a wooden sign. It looked fairly old, at least ten years. On it, in faded, letters, was the word "Hermitage".

"This house has been here for years. Apparently it belonged to the royal family, but they haven't been here in a long time," Jeremie explained.

So that's why it looks familiar, Aelita thought to herself. Of course Jeremie wouldn't know that so she kept quiet.

"The gate's locked but if you want we could climb over it. I've always wanted to see inside," Jeremie said.

Aelita nodded and stood up. "Well let's do it," she beamed.

Jeremie laughed. "Not now, I actually need to go meet a friend. Come back tomorrow and we'll go then."

* * *

Aelita climbed through the window of her bedroom. It was already eleven and she was worried that her absence might have been noticed.

She gasped as her fear was realized. "No..."

Her bed was empty. The pillows she had placed under her blanket were on the floor.

William must have come to check on her. That's what Aelita assumed. She'd have to worry about that in the morning, though. Everyone must have already gone to bed by now.

As she picked up her pillows, Aelita wondered if she'd be able to see Jeremie again the next day. Or perhaps he'd wait and wait and wait while she was confined to the palace. Eventually he would grow tired of waiting and would wonder why he even bothered wasting his time with someone he barely knew.

* * *

"You shouldn't waste your time with that boy," William was saying the next morning.

Aelita jerked her head up from her breakfast. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Jeremie Belpois, Xana's been having me research potential threats to his rule. That boy is a member of the resistance and he's wanted for aiding fugitives who attacked and killed military officers," William reported.

Military officers, Aelita laughed, you mean monsters.

"I fail to see the problem," she smirked.

William raised his eyebrows. "I'm just trying to warn you. If your brother finds out about him I don't know what he'll do."

Aelita thought about William's words for the rest of the day. It was obvious, now, that it had indeed been William who discovered her absence. The odds of going out to see Jeremie again were not in her favor.

But even if she wasn't able to meet him, she could still learn about him. So that evening, while William was in the throne room, Aelita went to his room to look around. He had said that he'd been researching Jeremie so he probably had something that she could look at.

After shuffling through a few papers, she came across a file labeled "Resistance" and opened it to see a picture of Jeremie. The picture had to be at least a year old. The file had more information than she expected. He was the same age as Aelita.

What surprised her was that William had told her the truth. Jeremie was indeed a member of the resistance, a group of revolutionaries who called themselves "Lyoko Warriors". Apparently Jeremie had been waiting in Montagne for a new recruit.

That explained why he'd been so willing to meet with her. He had probably thought that she was the new recruit. She flashed back to what Jeremie had said: "I had things to keep me busy". He must've had contact from the real recruit and just waited so that she wouldn't have waited for him to show up.

Well at least he was sweet. But if that was the case then why had he made plans to meet with her again?

* * *

"You're late," a girl said. Yes, it was definitely a girl's voice. Jeremie could tell.

It had taken him awhile to get to the meeting point. He should have checked the information that he'd been given. The girl he was supposed to meet had black hair, that's what the description said. That's what he got for not reading it before arriving in Montagne. He only started reading it when he had run into Aelita.

"There was something I had to deal with," Jeremie replied.

"I've lost too many things trying to get here, you shouldn't keep me waiting."

"Right, then. I'll be escorting you to the Factory."


	3. The Factory

"Where was my sister?" Xana hissed. William had been reporting his findings on Jeremie.

"I-I don't understand," William looked up at Xana, sitting on his throne with pride.

"You told me last night that she went to bed early. I wanted to check on her and when I did I found an empty bed," he snarled.

"I'm sorry, your highness. I meant to tell you. She was with me. She needed something so she came to my room," William explained.

Xana narrowed his eyes. "I see..."

* * *

"Yumi Ishiyama. That's your name, correct?" Jeremie asked.

After four hours of travel, Jeremie and the new recruit, Yumi Ishiyama, had finally arrived in Désert, where the Factory was located. Now that they had reached their destination, Jeremie finally got a good look at her. She had black hair in a bob cut and almond-shaped eyes.

"Yes, I'm from Banquise. I know I was the only one recruited but I was with my younger brother before I met with you. He... got lost before I reached the city. I was searching for him while I waited for you...but..." Yumi lowered her eyes.

Jeremie suddenly felt a pang of guilt. Many recruits had loved ones they had to leave behind but when they were lost it was especially hard. Xana was the most likely cause for the boy's disappearance. But to Jeremie all that mattered was that Yumi was here now. They could worry about her brother another time.

"Are you the new recruit!?" a tall chubby man came into the room. He had on a red and black jacket and gray sweatpants. On his head was the white bandana that Jeremie had come to associate with him.

"Oh, yes. Jim, this is Yumi Ishiyama, she's the new member. Can you take her to see Ulrich? They can cover the paperwork together," Jeremie suggested.

Jim beckoned Yumi towards him and led her out of the room.

"Good, now that they're gone, we can discuss what took you so long," a short, scrawny boy walked out from behind a pillar. He had spiky blonde hair with a bit of purple in the center. And it was obvious that purple was his favorite color; everything he was wearing was purple.

Jeremie looked over at him in surprise. "Oh, Odd. I ran into someone and she took up a bit of my time."

"Oh, do you know who she was?" Odd Della Robbia smirked.

"Her name was Aelita Stones," Jeremie shrugged. "Why, is it important?"

"Aelita...Stones?"

"Odd, do you know something?" Jeremie glared.

Odd smiled and walked over to the entrance of the dilapidated building.

The Factory was no longer in use. Not only that, but it was in the center of Désert, Lyoko's most desolate city. Aside from the Lyoko Warriors hardly anyone lived there. That's why it was the perfect place for an the resistance to take up residence.

The Factory was a tall building if you looked at it as a whole. But two-thirds of the building was underground; so to the naked eye, it appeared to only have one floor.

Odd and Jeremie were at the entrance on the top floor, which was the only floor above the ground.

Jeremie stood still, waiting for Odd to answer his question.

"Aelita Stones...hmm. Yes, I remember her. She used to come to Kadic Village, where I used to live," Odd stated.

Jeremie remembered what Odd had said when the two of them first met. Odd had come from Kadic Village to Désert almost immediately after Xana took the throne. Since Xana had removed all traces of life from Carthage, where Kadic Village was, Odd had been forced to relocate. He was the second longest member of the group, the first being Jeremie. Together they had formed the group. About a month later, a boy named Ulrich Stern had arrived from Forêt, the city filled with trees. After a few days, the three of them were able to come up with a name for the group.

Lyoko Warriors.

That's what they called themselves. And their mission: to fight for the good of the people. To eventually grow strong enough to become an army to fight Xana.

And so far, that plan was going quite well. Their numbers had grown to around sixty units and many of them had been able to fight off some of Xana's monsters, which had been lurking near the factory at the time.

Odd was now pacing around the factory entrance, deep in thought.

"One of the merchants told me that Aelita came from a neighboring village, though I never believed her," Odd explained.

Jeremie looked him in the eyes and asked him: "Why not?"

Odd smirked. "That boy that was always with her. William Dunbar; he's the general of Xana's military forces."

Now that was something Jeremie could believe. That boy had certainly not been the nicest of people. The fact that he took orders from Lyoko's tyrannical ruler only made his behavior more understandable. But Jeremie knew that Odd wasn't trying to explain the boy's strange behavior.

What was that girl doing with the boy closest to Xana?

"Well," Odd continued, "after I realized that she was with William, I did some digging. You wanna know what I found out?" Odd grinned.

The first thing that Jeremie wanted to ask was how he did the "digging", but there was a more important task than finding out who Odd's contacts were.

"What was it?" Jeremie asked, narrowing his eyes behind his glasses.

Odd grinned, "She's the daughter of King Franz and Queen Anthea."

"What are you talking about?" Jeremie asked, becoming very skeptical of Odd's mysterious contacts, who must have gotten their information wrong. "The Hoppers only had a son, Xana. They didn't have a daughter."

"That's what Xana wants everyone to think. He doesn't want anyone outside of the palace to find out about her. My contact told me that it's because he doesn't want anyone to think that there's a possibility he might be overthrown by another family member. It would cause a lot of uprise and there'd be more rebellions than there are now," Odd explained.

So Odd only had one contact. But was their information accurate? Was this mysterious Aelita Stones actually Xana's sister? No, there was no way. She was too nice to be related to him...

But William Dunbar...why else would he have been with her?

* * *

"Samantha?" Jeremie asked.

It was Ulrich Stern that Jeremie was talking to. They were eating in the elevator that led to the underground part of the factory. Apart from the piles of sand everywhere, it was actually a nice place to get away from the noise of the recruits training.

"Yes," Ulrich said, "that's who Odd's contact is. She's known him for years apparently."

Samantha... Jeremie thought that name sounded familiar. If he could remember correctly, she was one of the group members.

"Samantha is one of Odd's trainees, isn't she?" he asked Ulrich.

"Yeah, she and Taelia came here together from Kadic Village. Apparently Odd dated Samantha while he still lived there. That's why he's so close to her now," Ulrich explained.

"How trustworthy is she?" Jeremie inquired, cutting to the chase.

"You want to know if her information on Aelita Stones is correct? Well, here's something you ought to know: she was a high-up member of the military before Xana took over. She was very close to the royal family. If she says that Aelita Stones is actually Aelita Hopper, she's either lying about being close to the family, or she's lying about Aelita..."

"Or she's telling the truth..."

Ulrich nodded.

"Alright," Jeremie pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose, "I'm going to have to investigate this myself."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to the palace," Jeremie sighed.

"By yourself!? You're crazy!" Ulrich shouted. "At least take Odd or myself with you!"

"I was planning on taking that new girl, actually. Yumi Ishiyama. It would certainly be a good way to get her inducted into the group," Jeremie suggested.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous? The palace is guarded by Megatanks and who knows what else. Shouldn't you take someone with more experience?" Ulrich looked skeptical.

"According to her registration papers she's been a martial arts student since she was three. I think she'd do fairly well against Xana's monsters."

At least, Jeremie hoped so.

* * *

Okay, so I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. I'm already done editing what I originally had but I want to add on to it so it's not finished yet and next week I'm going to be traveling to Dallas and then to Austin for Anime Overload so I won't have that much time to work on it after this week. With any luck I might get off my ass and actually start writing but I doubt that the next chapter will be up by next week so please be patient.


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